NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- CityMD will start closing its urgent care sites early next week, as its staff members and doctors have been "sacrificing their own safety and health" to stay late treating patients, the company said Friday.
Sites across the city will shutter 90 minutes earlier than usual starting Monday, Nov. 16, the company said in a release.
"We're proud to have been on the front line of COVID-19 care since the day it hit our region," the company said. "We're also proud to be a great place to work and a company that cares deeply about our patients and our employees."
CityMD sites, however, "can't stay open past our normal hours on a daily basis," the release said.
"Our site staff and doctors have been seeing patients well beyond normal closing time for months now, and we've reached the point where they are sacrificing their own safety and health," it said. "We've worked hard to increase our staffing levels, hiring and training more than 1,000 new team members over the past several months, but we continue to be challenged to serve the current patient volumes with the levels of service that you deserve and expect from us."
Staff members will try to treat any patient who gets in line before closing time even after a site is technically closed, but sites "may need to cut the line off earlier" in "extreme cases," according to the release.
The change-of-hours is expected to stay in effect for the next few months, the release noted.
"We are hopeful that this change will allow us to continue to provide our communities with excellent care while setting clear expectations for patients and giving our teams the ability to end work on time and get home to their families," the release added.
